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It would benefit the administration if Bush and Steve Forbes could patch
up whatever feud they have, for the latter is an excellent candidate for a
new Treasury secretary. In the Nov. 11 issue of Forbes, the two-time
presidential candidate wrote: "President Bush is rightly focusing all his
energies on Iraq. But isn't there another adult in this Administration who
can give the economy the attention it needs?...

"The President should...unveil a tax cut package of Kennedy and Reagan
proportions. Expand the already passed, across-the-board cuts in income tax
rates and make them effective immediately; slash the capital gains levy; end
the double taxation of dividends; increase the deduction for stock market
losses that beleaguered individual investors can take on their income tax
returns; raise caps on IRA, 401(k) and Keogh contributions, and permit
owners of these plans to make withdrawals at any age they wish instead of
forcing them to do so at age 70-1/2; liberalize depreciation schedules; and
knock down corporate income taxes.

"In fact, the Administration should really go for the mojo and call for
a flat tax."

Now that's an impressive job application.

CLICHES

Normally, I don't find Rick Reilly's Sports Illustrated column particularly
irritating. In fact, on occasion he can rise above the web of cliches that
are typical among marquee sportswriters, as in a poignant piece a few months
ago on how John Elway's life fell apart (and was then pieced together) after
he retired from pro football. But Reilly's Nov. 4 issue-closer was awful,
reading like an audition for a standup routine in the Poconos.

He wrote: "Don't you feel a little sorry for Barry Bonds? [No.]

"True, Bonds has the warmth of a dyspeptic IRS auditor. He dispenses
more snarls than twin Dobermans. He's rude, insular and grouchy. And that's
on his birthday.

"But nobody, not even Barry Bonds, deserves a World Series like he just
had. All his life he'd dreamed of getting to one of these babies, and when
he did it brought him all the joy of an upper G.I. cleansing.

At least he didn't mix politics with sports. On the left-wing website
AlterNet, a woman named Marsha Rosenbaum wrote an appalling column that
could only be composed in San Francisco or Michael Moore's spacious
limousine.

She said, on Oct. 29: "This morning I wondered why, after the
devastating news about Paul Wellstone, which means not only the loss of a
principled man and the only senator in a close race to have the guts to cast
a 'no' vote on the war in Iraq, but whose death could tip the fragile
balance of power in the Senate; and why, after reading a snotty and
inaccurate cover story about a social issue I care deeply about, drug policy
reform, in none other than Time magazine; I awakened with a lump in my
throat... about the San Francisco Giants' loss in the World Series."

At least Reilly presumably knows that currently there is no "war in
Iraq," and that Time isn't exactly the last word on social issues, or
anything else for that matter.

She continues: "The Giants became our family. For three weeks in
October, we experienced their anxiety, their joy, their camaraderie [say
what?], their frustration, and now, their deep disappointment.

"But it felt like more than a game. I couldn't help but notice some
serious praying in Anaheim Saturday night, with hands clasped and heads
bowed, as though the religious right had taken up baseball. [Since when are
religion and sports incompatible, dear?] The Series seemed a snapshot of
political life in America: Orange County versus San Francisco. And just as
we 'lost' the Presidency two years ago; lost a progressive politician this
week; and seem to be losing our ability to shape the political course of our
country; we lost the World Series."

While it's heartening that some America Last Americans do skip macramé
classes and Noam Chomsky lectures to watch ballgames, how the Giants'
choking in the Series has anything to do with Wellstone or "progressive"
politics escapes me. When the Yanks were mercifully eliminated by the Angels
in the first round of playoffs, I can't recall, even in the Times, anyone
making a connection to tax cuts, the Iraqi dictator or Hillary Clinton's
failure to help Carl McCall in his race against George Pataki.

But on the baseball front there's reason for cheer. The Yankees,
apparently shocked by their early exit from 2002's postseason, are,
according to local newspaper reports, considering trading catcher Jorge
Posada, while taking a look at Colorado's grossly overcompensated Mike
Hampton. Why the Yanks would give up Posada, whose clutch-hitting makes him
a threat with any runners in scoring position, is a mystery. He's also part
of the core of the Yanks' recent dynasty and, just as ditching Tino Martinez
was bad for Bomber juju, unloading Posada would undermine morale with
veterans like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera and Andy
Pettitte.

With any luck, the Yanks in 2003 will stage a revival of the team that
featured Roger Repoz, Horace Clarke and the unfortunate Roy White.